Thursday, August 18, 2011

The Island of Living Trees (A Reboot Mystery #2) by CL Ragsdale

Book Description:
An island infested with trees that walk around, capture unsuspecting visitors and turn them into trees? An absurd fable unworthy of being taken seriously, unless that is you are a member of Irene's Eerie Adventures then it is Good TV and that is your business. Once again Irene Waters finds herself in the unknown territory of the sensational as she and her cameraman, Troy Stenson, visit Isla de los Árboles Vivos, or The Island of Living Trees.
Supposedly the island is under the curse of a banished Indian shaman who turned himself into a tree and does the same to anyone unfortunate enough to wear out their welcome on the island. Sensational tales abound, but actual facts, thanks to Reboot's consistently unreliable research department, are scarce. However, such minor details have taken a back seat to the sensational storyline. As usual.
As if animated trees were not enough to contend with, Irene is also facing issues of the human persuasion inserting themselves into the story.
Yvonne Ruben is an overzealous political candidate determined to protect an up to now unheard of species of island fox whose existence Irene suspects may be more wishful thinking than concrete in nature. Steve Parker, the superstitious boat captain who has a past relationship with Yvonne, wants them off the island before they even arrive. Brian Wells, an enthusiastic real estate developer thinks the island would be a good investment, putting him in direct conflict with Yvonne. Worst of all, there is Pepper Fierce, an environmentalist who insists her sole concern is the aforementioned island fox but whose attention seems solely fixated on Troy.
Things go from bad to weird (what else is new?) once the Reboot Team, Yvonne, Pepper and Steve arrive on the island. Troy's mind is on the charms of Pepper not the mystery, and for some reason he is nervous of the trees. Pepper seems intent not on finding her precious fox, but in turning Troy against Irene. Steve won't leave his boat, and Yvonne is merely tolerating the others. Then a member of the party mysteriously disappears, and everyone, with the exception of Irene, is certain they have been kidnapped and turned into a tree. Outnumbered and on defense, Irene must rely on the long distance assistance of her station manager Bernie Youngman to cut the tree myth off at its roots and solve the mystery.

My Thoughts:
This was highly entertaining. Irene and Troy are at it again. Now, they are looking into the mystery of an island whose trees are legend to move around and if you stay on the island, you are likely to become one! Yvonne and Pepper don't intend on letting Troy and Irene get their story but the question is why? Why would a politician and an environmentalist care? When things go from bad to worse when they get to the island, Irene is left to ponder these questions on her own as her partner is too busy 'finding sites' and flirting with Pepper...
I was so very happy to have this duo back in this newest installment of the Reboot Files. In this story, we learn a bit more about Troy, though there are still a lot of questions I have. Irene continues to baffle him and most the people around her with her seemingly unwavering faith. The boat captain, Steve, really caught my attention and was a great character. I very much enjoyed the story line and it was a good, fast read.
I rate this a 5/5. Good read that will highly entertain you!

Thank you to the author for the review copy of this book. I received this book in exchange for an honest review and the opinions stated above are 100% mine.